GCSE Results Released in an Exceptional Year – Summer 2020
Year 11 pupils at Wells Cathedral School celebrated an extraordinary set of GCSE results on Thursday, despite an unsettling and anxious wait amidst Department for Education policy changes. This year, with all public examinations cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, pupils were awarded their results based on Centre Assessed Grades.
Almost two fifths of Wells pupils gained the top two 9-8 grades for their GCSE subjects, the very highest percentage obtained in the School’s history. 20 per cent of grades awarded to Wells pupils were grade 9 (against a national average of 6.6 per cent); with almost three fifths gaining grades 9-7 and well over three quarters of all results between grades 9-6.
More than a quarter of pupils achieved seven or more of the two top grades, while 12 pupils achieved five or more grade 9s, including Daisy Barrow from Westbury-sub-Mendip, Rocket Brooks, Harriet Carlill, Naomi Chung, Louis Cronin from Croscombe, Lauren Green from Frome, Eliza Haskins, Helena Kieser from Bradford-upon-Avon, Belle Li, Amelia McCormack from Chew Stoke, Imogen Moorsom and Max Warner from Wells.
Wells’ grades were very high across a diverse spread of subjects. Results were particularly impressive in the three Sciences, where three quarters of all pupils were awarded the top two grades and the entire cohort achieved grades 9-7 in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Almost half the results awarded in French were grades 9-8, with two thirds gaining the top two grades in Latin. In the humanities, nearly a quarter of all results in both Geography and RPE were grade 9. In the creative arts, almost a half of all pupils in a very large cohort gained a grade 9 in Music.
In spite of the year’s exceptional circumstances, many of this cohort have maintained their specialism in music while juggling their academic commitments. Others have fitted in a wide range of other activities, including sports, drama, outdoor pursuits and volunteering in their spare time, making the most of all the opportunities that lockdown has provided.
Head Master Alastair Tighe, said, “In the midst of the national debate on and changes to public exam grading this year, it’s been so important to remember that at the heart of all this are individual pupils who have worked hard to achieve the best results they can in the most challenging of situations. My colleagues and I are proud of the results of all our pupils, and proud of the way they have committed themselves throughout their GCSE courses, and their results are testimony to that. Our pupils too should be justifiably proud, especially when their results are considered alongside their numerous additional achievements in other areas of school life. We look forward to welcoming them back to School in September as they embark on their Sixth Form careers.”
